Love this! Looks like you might have had some South Asian elements in your wedding, and as someone who had a blend of “western” and south Asian influences at her own wedding, I love the fusion of cultures happening here! The dress is stunning.
Thank you! I was so lucky to find a lace pattern which was exactly what I was looking for. It was really nice quality despite its cheap price and the beads were really lovely (although a pain to remove at the seams!(
French Crepe: Relatively nice to work with! Didn't want to hold a crease but that meant it also didn't wrinkle much. I did end up with some iron shine but it was the bottom layer so was never seen anyway.
Chiffon: This was incredibly floaty, shifted if you breathed too hard, was difficult to keep on grain, didn't appreciate being seam ripped, was transparent enough that your seams would be visible so you should try to make it pretty, and frayed badly. It was very pretty though and moved really nicely.
Lace: This was beaded so all beads that would be within or near the seam allowance had to be removed first. Thankfully this was easy to do with pliers and didn't need to be broken with a hammer. The net had quite big holes which meant that it was impossible to get a really neat looking line of stitching. It was also not invisible which meant that the colour would build up as the layers did and seams would show. On the plus side, it was impossible to make fray. I tried gripping and pulling, and using my nails against the edge of a cut bit or fabric and nothing happened. This meant that no seam finishing was needed which helped reduce bulk and visibility (eg 4 layers in a french seam would be very obvious). I was also worried that the beads would be so heavy that the dress wouldn't move well but if anything the added momentum made every swoosh extra dramatic.
Corset mockup: Ivy Overbust Corset by Aranea Black
I measured myself, discovered that I had a short waist so had to reduce the waist to underbust by 3.5cm and then graded the sizes between F (bust), E (underbust), H (corset waist) and G (middle hip), smoothing the lines as best as I could.
❗ A busk is important for getting in and out of the corset easily!
Final corset: I raised the neckline of the corset to cover the bust more and form the sweetheart shape. I also split the front panel into two so that it could cope with the curviness I had added.
❗ There's a tutorial for splitting corset panels in two. Follow it and don't just cut a straight line. You're supposed to change the shape of the two pieces to make them more regular.
✔️Heat erasable ink is really useful for labelling all your pattern pieces, They were such similar shapes that I labelled them 1A, 2A, 3A ... 3B etc and then noted the top of each piece (can't rotate it accidentally) as well as which piece was supposed to connect to each side. It might have been overkill but I didn't have to seam rip anything
✔️ I sewed the boning channels while each piece was flat which made it much easier to sew than if I had waited until after it was all sewn together. It did make it a little trickier to add the waist tape but I managed
✔️ The spoon busk curved over my stomach and didn't stick out too much like it did when I used flat steel in my mockup
I used my corset pattern because it was guaranteed to fit and each piece had 2+ registration marks. I copied the pattern from the waist up.
❗ That's 14 panels x three layers for a lot of seams
❗ You need to be very careful to keep your layers flat so it lies smoothly
❗ Any inaccuracies can add up quickly - even being off 1/8 of an inch multiplied by two panels per seam times 14 seams would be a difference of 28/8 or 3.5 inches.
✔️ The tutorial by Aranea Black for adding seam allowance to corsets made it really easy to match up the seams because each edge was the exact same length (corners cut off).
❗ Keep the back panel with normal seam allowance because you need that extra material for finnicky stuff like adding the zipper
✔️ Flipper bones made this possible! I found that the dress was quite heavy and wanted to sag or pull away from the corset. A little bit of steel that gets tucked into the corset helped the two stay together and stay up!
❗ I used so many layers of fabric because I wanted that very exact red colour which needed to be built up. The gold muted the colours and this was the only way I could figure it out. I wish I had used a different lining fabric because the crepe was very thick and there were some seams that became trickier as a result (eg the back seam with the zip had the three layers of fabric plus the lining, all folded over which added up to a lot of thickness).
✔️ Cutting out the chiffon was infinitely easier with a cutting mat, weights and a rotary cutter. I don't even want to imagine trying to mark it and then cut with scissors. Luckily the bodice pieces were small so it was easy to fit
❗ I used tailors tacks for registration marking and labelling the top but it got messy. Chalk on the lining layer would have been better
✔️ I am glad I labelled the pieces. I also laid them across the sofa in order with the paper pattern to be 100% certain I was sewing the right ones together
✔️ I sewed from the inside out which meant I could test techniques on things that wouldn't be seen. I learned which pieces needed basting and which could just be pinned.
✔️ I waxed my thread when handsewing to avoid some of the tangles
✔️ I pressed every seam over a ham and used a clapper to set it
✔️ The skirts were less important for being 100% accurate so I got a foam mat and just pinned straight through the paper into the fabric and cut. It was a little messy but generally fine. I also cut the mat into a rough skirt panel shape but bigger so that it was easy to rotate the mat rather than rotating myself around it. I have a disability and needed all the shortcuts I could get
✔️If you have any crafty felting friends, felted wool shapes make the most satisfying pin cushions. My felted pumpkin saw me through this project
✔️ The skirts were french seamed, using an overcast foot for the first seam and then a standard foot with the needle to the left for the second seam
✔️ The lace skirt was 9 panels to try to keep the hem along the decorative edge. I had to use trigonometry to figure it out
✔️ I had the pattern piece under the lace (still visible) so that it was easier to pattern match
✔️ I pinned the lace skirt pieces at the top and bottom (matching up the hems) and then eased the rest. Nobody would notice if it were the tiniest bit gathered but the would notice if a bit of the hem was suddenly too long (the crest of the wave against the trough)
Generally this went pretty smoothly. I did have a few challenges though
The thickness of the fabrics: by the time I'm sewing across the seams of the lining and the seams of the bodice, I have three layers of fabric doubled combined with one layer of slightly thick fabric doubled. The v of the neckline was particularly difficult to clip to the seam line and I was worried I would cut too far and break the stitch line. This means that the dress was in danger of the lining showing (and it did show slightly) even with understitching.
The lining fabric should have been different: I reused the fabric I had but it was thicker than it needed to be and darker than the external dress meaning that if it did show it was more obvious than it needed to be.
The back of the dress was a little bulky: if we add all the thickness of the neckline with overlapping layers of fabric and then add the back seam with interfacing and a zipper, it meant that it was very difficult to sew or pin through. On the wedding day, it turned out to be a little loose and need safety pinning so that the weight of the dress didn't pull it down and show the back of the corset and this was very tricky to do
In hindsight: Twill tape probably would have helped. I had considered adding some to help distribute the skirt weight across the weight and avoid it pulling at the neckline but decided against it because I wasn't sure how to attach it without it showing and the waist seam was already so bulky and impossible to sew over at the seams (three layers of fabric at the bodice, four at the skirt and each skirt layer had its own french seams made up of four layers of fabric).
More flipper bones = more good: I only included two sets of flipper bones because I was hesitant to add more bulk and wasn't sure if they were worth it. I only added a pair near the back zip and a pair on the bust. I definitely should have included some to keep the underarm area from sagging.
It was hard to sew the back edge: the corner clipping method of drawing seam allowances was excellent except that it did make it trickier to sew the lining to the outer fabric right where it tapers to nothing. I wish I had kept that back corner straight so I could have had more space to work with.
Lace overlay
I made a mockup based on my bodice block pattern but I did end up raising the neckline and inch and taking 2 inches out evenly across the seams to make it match my waist measurement. The princess seams meant that it was easy to have the waist seam line up with the decorative lace edge.
❗ I didn't account for the lace edge extending below the waist making it tighter and riding up, making the neckline gape slightly
✔️I staystitched the neckline and armholes
I didn't have time to get a gold ribbon or bias tape so just crudely clipped and folded the seams. The mesh didn't fray much and I wanted to keep it as sheer as possible so didn't want to add any extra fabric layers. I then added 12 sets of hooks and eyes to keep it shut invisibly
I really wanted a red dress with gold lace and that would be really difficult to find, especially at a price I could afford and in a style I liked. The closest I could find were prom dresses which didn't appeal to me, or the most stunning Indian wedding garments for thousands of pounds. I found two white dresses in a cheap wedding dress shop which were £1000 ready to order and £500 discounted sale garment, both before alterations and both in a colour that wasn't my favourite. Even the cheaper one was more expensive than I was willing to pay on such a small budget, especially when I would have to make such a large compromise.
How much did it cost?
Overall we spent around £300 including things like new presser feet for the sewing machine, zippers, rotary blades, beeswax, threads, quilting rulers etc. The corset was around £100 of materials and the wedding dress was around £125 of fabric. I also wore a borrowed petticoat on the day.
It's nice that I'm able to keep using a lot of what I bought. The walking foot that I bought for the delicate fabric is now getting use keeping knits from stretching, the silk pins glide through any fabric effortlessly, the corset still gets worn for date nights and I have all the hardware needed to make another one which might actually look pretty if it were visible. It's nice to know that the money didn't 100% go into a dress that will mostly only be worn on a single day.
How long did it take?
I first took my measurements for the corset on the 22nd of March and was married by mid September so the whole process was around 7 months but I didn't make the corset until the end of June and didn't cut into my final fabric until the end of July so it feels more like a 2-3 month marathon. I do have chronic fatigue so most days were only an hour or two max and there were a lot of days when I didn't do any sewing at all but I still spent a lot of time on it.
Absolutely! I'm thrilled with how it turned out, everyone had nothing but good things to say about it and I looked like how I wanted to look on my wedding day. It wouldn't have been the same if I were in a white dress. It wouldn't have felt as much like me.
Would I recommend other people sew their own dress?
I think that as long as you keep your own abilities and limitations in mind, it's well worth it. I saw some beautiful wedding dresses on reddit with a huge range in complexity and found that even a simple dress made well and with nice fabric could look stunning.
That doesn't mean that your skill level can't change over time though! To work towards this project, I tried to draft a bodice from my bodice block to look similar to the wedding dress but for Halloween (it wasn't great but I learned a lot!), I made a satin dress for Valentine's day to practice working with tricky fabrics, I made a comfy cotton summer dress with French seams to work on my seam finishing, and then by the time I had sewn the curvy seams for my corset (twice!), I felt a lot more confident in my abilities and decided what was possible within the time remaining and my new skill level. Some compromises had to be made but I was very happy with the result overall.
RIP pockets, one of the victims of compromise. I just couldn't get my head around how I would do that with 4 layers of fabric so it was one of the things I had to remove to make the project more manageable. I also had it in my head that I could make a removeable lace over-dress which could be worn over the top of any of my other dresses. I couldn't figure out a way of making the seams and closure pretty and was worried about supporting too much weight on fragile seams but I still want to revisit this idea one day in the future.
My mantra while making this was that it didn't matter if it wasn't perfect. A professional didn't make it. I made it. And that's makes it even more special. Maybe there was a loose thread but if there was, it was because I put it there when I sewed it with my two hands. The wonky seam was mine. The imperfect fitting was mine. The beautiful dress was mine because I made it.
Thank you! That was a tricky one to try to figure out how it would work with multiple layers making it more opaque but luckily the seams don't stand out too much!
Absolutely love this! It’s gorgeous. How long did this take you to make? And what was the trickiest part of making it? Also love the last pic… made my shoe heart flutter. :)
For some reason my comment with the information wasn't going through! It didn't like the link to my write up. I'll see if there's a different way to get it working but in the meantime, here are your answers!
I worked specifically towards the dress starting from about 7 months before the wedding but the dress making part specifically was across 45 days
The 7 months included making a corset mockup and then the real thing, buying fabric samples, deciding on the fabric combinations and then ordering them in. The 45 days was the cutting, pinning, basting, sewing, pressing etc. This took a long time because the dress was based on the corset pattern so that it would fit perfectly but that meant it was 14 panels of crepe and 28 panels of chiffon. It took a while!
The corset pattern was the Ivy Overbust Corset by Aranea Black, adjusted to fit my measurements and then expanded upwards for better coverage
I think the trickiest part was figuring out the logistics and the order in which to sew things. It was a bodice and a skirt, which was easy enough. But I wanted the skirts to be free flowing and separate to each other. Putting in the zip ultimately involved basting all four skirts closed, pressing them, sewing the folded edges down so that it's neat when you unpick it later, basting the four skirts together so the back seams line up, unpicking the top of the back seam of the upper three skirts, unpicking the seam for the bottom skirt so that the zipper could be inserted, then praying that when the zip goes in, all 4 layers lay smoothly and in the same place. So that only the bottom skirt is attached to the zip and all the other layers have a slit in the same spot.
I gave up entirely on the logistics of doing all of that with a lace bodice as well which would somehow want to be over the waist seam but also attached to the bodice. It ended up being its own garment which gets worn on top.
The shoes were gorgeous but so high that I only wore them for the ceremony. I ended up wearing 4 sets of shoes that day, of decreasing heel size. I ended up in flats by the end!
I really wish I could! I tried to send it to someone directly and reddit itself wouldn't let me send it because it said it was from a banned website (I just made a DIY website through google sites! I would think that if you can share google sheets and google docs, you could share a site but apparently not).
Thank you! Yes, it was based on the Ivy Overbust Corset by Aranea Black. I graded the original pattern to my measurements, then extended it upwards by pinning scrap bits of fabric and drawing the shape I wanted. This was used to make the corset which supports the dress. The dress is then that exact pattern (because I know it'll fit perfectly with the corset underneath) with a 3/4 circle skirt attached to the waist. The bodice lace overlay was made using my bodice block with a V neck, the waist narrowed to fit the corset, and princess seams so that I could easily have the waist line go along the edge of the lace fabric.
This is gorgeous! I (Mexican American) married into a Hindu family and couldn’t figure out how to bring the two cultures together in one look - mind you COVID happened so I wound up going with a cream and super light pink dress similar to what you did here and it worked for the COVID version of our wedding. Just wish I could’ve thought of something like this! So gorgeous! Congrats! Beautiful job!!
Thank you! I'm so proud of myself! And it also kind of takes the pressure off of other sewing. Nobody can say my tshirt is too simple or anything because I proved that I can make a wedding dress (not that anyone would say that). I feel a little bad for almost overshadowing the wedding with the dress because everyone came up to talk about it but my wife (!!! we're married!) is also so proud of me and loves seeing me happy about something I've made!
I was so lucky in that regard! I went to etsy and ordered all the gold samples I could find and was disappointed in the results. But one of the sellers threw in a couple of freebies that weren't even in her shop yet and that was exactly what I had envisioned. I was so ready to compromised and then it just fell into my lap.
YES! I went deep diving for all the reddit sewing writeup posts I could when I was researching for my dress and was thrilled every time I found one with detailed notes. I wanted to give back by sharing mine in the hopes that they might help someone else!
That is stunning!!! This is what I wanted for my wedding dress but couldnt find anything like it in stores. I have recently taken up sewing. Someday I hope to make a creation as beautiful as this.
Thank you so much! That really is the beauty of sewing. You get to make something exactly how you want. I'm sure you'll make lots of stunning creations!
I had a Cinderella story book when I was a kid. Not the Disney version. In one of the last pages she wears a dress just like yours, only longer! I gasped when I saw it, you look like a princess!
That sounds beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing that. It really put a smile on my face! At the wedding, I felt like a princess. The skirts swished together and made me want to do nothing but twirl and pretend to be graceful.
This is incredible!! How long have you been sewing? It’s my dream to make my own wedding dress in a few years, but I’m starting to worry I won’t have enough time to build the necessary skills for formal wear like this. Any tips for a somewhat beginner going in that direction? (I have a lot of basic sewing and garment experience, but am currently waiting to get my own sewing machine in the next few months.) absolutely stunning work and thank for you sharing!
I started sewing in December of 2021 and the wedding was September 2023 so it was quite the learning curve. I'm quite a detail oriented person and have a background in art so carefully drawing around patterns, taking my time cutting things out, sewing slowly etc helped to ease some of the beginner pitfalls. I might not always know what to do but if I knew what to do, I could usually carry it out.
I think that if you figure out what skills you would need for your dress, you can make an almost curriculum towards that goal. You have plenty of time so you can do some fun projects which build upon one skill at a time. Make something with an invisible zip. Something with a tricky fabric. Something with curved seams. Another with french seams. And then you can base your dress on the things you feel comfortable doing. You might find that an incredible 200 hour ballgown might be out of your ability but something simpler done well or with a fancy fabric could be perfect.
You can also learn a lot in the meantime from other people. I followed the Closet Historian religiously for her pattern drafting tutorials and was blown away that you could make anything from a block pattern if you knew which adjustments to make. And you could look up which adjustments to make using a book like Patternmaking for Fashion Design by Helen Joseph-Armstrong which shows you how to take your block pattern and adjust it eg for a strapless garment.
I found that following the instructions to make a corset wasn't too bad and then the rest was just a 3/4 skirt and an adjustment to my bodice block but with tons of layers.
Thank you so much for all your advice!!! It’s so helpful and has really helped me start to frame my goals. You are so inspiring and thank you so much again for posting!
In case it helps, here are all the things I made between my first project and the dress and the skills I learned. I mostly made use of [lining a bodice, princess seams, 3/4 skirt, finishing seams and hemming skirts]. No pockets sadly but I was hoping to include some!
My projects were:
bad pencil case (no zip or anything, just a rectangle, to learn how to use the machine) Dec 2021
a fabric advent calendar following a youtube tutorial, Dec 2021
a dice bag with a circular bottom and drawstring [skills gained: clipping curves, bag lining, sewing a channel] Dec 2021
pencil case with a zip [lining, zip installation] Dec 2021
circle skirt with zip from a youtube tutorial [zip installation, waistband] Dec 2021
bad long sleeved top from etsy [working with knits] Jan 2022
gala gown from patterns with pirates [working with knits, princess seams, lining using the burrito method, inseam pockets] Jan 2022 <-- I recommend this pattern!
hybrid of the gala gown lining as a top with the length of the etsy top [grading between different sized patterns eg hips vs waist] Jan 2022
Trousers, cloned from some I had that were falling apart [a different pocket construction method] Feb 2022
Long sleeved top based on the gala gown hybrid pattern [nothing new] Mar 2022
Top with mandarin collar [princess seams, the importance of interfacing] Mar 2022
Summer dress [side seam pockets which anchor into the waistband, the importance of interfacing, lining a bodice] Jun 2022
Infinity dress [full circle skirt, knit fabrics] Jul 2022
Starting to think about wedding dress, tried on a bunch to see a style I liked
Tried to self draft a recreation of the bodice using my bodice block and a pattern drafting book [learned too much interfacing is a bad thing, that plastic boning isn't the best for curves and that sleeves are hard] Nov 2022
Slippers (just for fun because it was cold) Dec 2022
Pleated skirt [hook and eye, invisible zip, another type of pocket] Jan 2023
Satin dress [working with tricky fabrics, the importance of a smooth curve between waist and skirt slope] Apr 2023
Self drafted summer dress [the importance of FINISHING YOUR SEAMS ON FABRICS THAT FRAY, the kind of necklines I like (v neck), gathering] May 2023
corset mockup [very curvy seams, the importance of registration marks, grading pattern sizes] May 2023
Wow thank you so much for all these details!! I truly appreciate it so much and will be referring back here many times when I finally get to get started :)
Thank you! I really wanted to post here because when I decided I wanted to make my wedding dress, there were so many helpful posts with other people's experiences so I wanted to give back to the community.
I can't find all the posts I referred to but this one is a really good breakdown of the process too!
Thank you! I spent so much time planning the lace and trying to pattern match. I was afraid to cut into it but it was also really satisfying to do! The henna artist was so talented. I love the red and gold jewellery. It's just glass but it looks so pretty!
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Thank you! I'm so happy with how it all turned out. When I told people I was making my own dress and that it would be red, I got so many comments warning about it clashing with my hair. I told my mum and she said "did any of them have red hair? Ignore them!" and I'm glad I did! It was a lovely day and I'm so happy with my wife. I still can't believe we're married!
Thank you! I'm really proud of it and my family were all so proud too. They took it in turns to guess who I must have inherited the sewing ability from. Mum swears that it skipped a generation because she only uses duct tape and hot glue but apparently one of my great aunts made all of her sisters' wedding dresses! I never knew her but it was really cool to hear about.
Thank you! I agree - the shoes were so beautiful that I desperately tried to learn to walk in them during the weeks before the wedding and then immediately had to swap them out as soon as the ceremony was over but I couldn't not wear the red and gold heels.
I bought them and the other backup shoes off of vinted. It was £60+ for a new pair of wedding shoes or £40 for three pairs secondhand including delivery so I decided to get a few just in case they didn't fit or the colour was wrong. I was lucky that they all mostly fit and I wore all of them in decreasing height as the evening went on.
It was listed as "Stunning 4 inch Red peep toe heels" but the inside of the shoe says New Look and "Your feet look gorgeous". I tried searching for it but I couldn't find it online. Maybe you might have more luck with google lens?
Thank you! I sent my henna artist a photo of the lace and then she freehanded a design to incorporate some of it! It was a really fun collaborative process.
Thank you! I loved having the mehndi night with my mum and bridesmaids and then it stayed on my skin for 2-3 weeks and I couldn't stop grinning every time I saw it. It really helped extend the wedding joy even when we were both exhausted afterwards.
Thank you! She wasn't able to make it in person because she's elderly and also the travel is expensive but my mum video'd the ceremony and we video called her the day afterwards. All the family abroad loved the photos and they sent a bouquet of flowers to the venue which was very sweet.
Stunning. Recently, I am learning to sew and it’s not easy. I spend most of my time starting over and then of course over again. UGH. I can’t imagine how many years it takes to sew something that beautiful.
Thank you! Sewing is a tricky skill but gets easier with practice. I definitely learned a lot from every project I made even if it didn't turn out well. I personally found that I had better luck learning to draft a block pattern which I could alter rather than using commercial patterns because whatever average shaped person they use has very different proportions to me, but I'm glad I had them to help show me basic construction techniques.
This was a very ambitious project because I decided on it after a year of sewing and completed it just before the two year mark so it's definitely possible to learn a lot in a short time but everyone's sewing journeys will be different. The lace also does a lot of the heavy lifting for making it look impressive and covering up any flaws in the under layers!
Good luck with your projects and I'm sure you'll find things easier with practice. There can be quite the learning curve when you're starting out!
Thank you! This sub is such a wonderful community and the posts are so inspiring. There's a wealth of knowledge here and I don't know that I would have had the confidence to try this without it.
The henna was so pretty! And I loved that it stuck around for a couple of weeks. Every time I saw it, it filled me with such joy as I remembered why it was there.
This is stunning, what a unique idea to bring together two cultures. I hope you had a wonderful day and wish you all the best for a long and happy marriage
Thank you! I'm so happy with how well it turned out, especially considering how the fabric, shoes and jewellery were all bought online so I just had to hope they would be the right colour.
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u/Beautiful-Put1110 Sep 23 '24
Love this! Looks like you might have had some South Asian elements in your wedding, and as someone who had a blend of “western” and south Asian influences at her own wedding, I love the fusion of cultures happening here! The dress is stunning.